Monroe Gallery of Photography

Monroe Gallery of Photography specializes in classic black and white photography with an emphasis on humanist and photojournalist imagery. The gallery features work by more than 60 renowned photographers and also represents a select group of contemporary and emerging photographers.
Visitors to the spacious gallery and our website http://www.monroegallery.com are invited to view some of the best photography the 20th and 21st century have to offer.
— Sidney and Michelle Monroe

Monroe Gallery of Photography Home Page

Friday, September 22, 2017

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of
Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present a major exhibition of photographs
from one of America’s most
accomplished photographers, Art Shay. The exhibit of 50 photographs
opens Friday, October 6 with a public reception from 5 – 7 PM, and continues
through November 19.

For over 70 years, Art Shay has
documented life, combining his gifts of storytelling, humor and empathy. The
Lucie Awards is the premiere annual event honoring the greatest achievements in
photography. Art Shay will be honored with the Lucie statue for Lifetime
Achievement during the Lucie Awards gala ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York
October 29, 2017. Below is the announcement from the Lucie Foundation.

ART SHAY

2017 Honoree, Lifetime Achievement

“Art Shay’s photography shakes you up, sets you down gently,
pats you on the head and then kicks you in the ass.” Roger Ebert

Art Shay was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1922. During
World War II, he was lead navigator on 30 missions in the Eighth Air Force. His
service, which also include 23 combat supplies missions, earned him five Air
Medals, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Croix de Guerre. He is
credited with shooting down one Focke Wulf 190, a German fighter plane.

Shay has pursued photography since his teens, and he took his
first Leica to war with him. His first published photographs—documenting a mid
air collision over his English Air Base—were printed in a September 1944 issue
of Look magazine. Upon returning to civilian life, Shay wrote Sunday
features for the Washington Post before becoming a staff reporter
for Life magazine. In San Francisco at age 26, he became Life’s
youngest bureau chief. His specialty was story ideas and he wrote text and
captions for photographers such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Peter Stackpole, Wallace
Kirkland and Francis Miller.

Shay moved to Chicago in late 1948. A longtime fan of
literature, he befriended novelist Nelson Algren, the winner of the first
National Book Award for Fiction. Throughout the 1950s, they wandered Chicago
documenting Algren’s “rusty heart” neighborhoods. In 1951, Shay left his staff
position at Life magazine and became a freelance photographer. He found success
shooting for major magazines including Life, Time, Fortune, Ebony, Sports
Illustrated, The Saturday Evening Post and The New York Times Magazine.
Shay earned a reputation for getting the shots editors wanted. As former editor
of Lifeand Fortune Roy Rowan put it, “Art Shay’s extraordinary
talent lies in capturing the human spirit of all those who come before his
lens.”

Shay’s images range from photographs of nine US Presidents, to the early 1960s Post cereal box baseball card photographs, to a forty-year ongoing essay of a local shopping mall. He is the author of nearly 70 books, including several dozen nonfiction children’s books. He has also written five plays, two of which had professional stage runs: “A Clock for Nikita” in 1963 and “Where have you gone, Jimmy Stewart?” in 2002. Shay is also a member of the U.S. Racquetball Hall of Fame (having been a state and national champion) and has been the official photographer of the racquetball association.

Since 1958, Shay has lived in Deerfield, Illinois, where he and his wife Florence raised their five children. Florence Shay, an esteemed rare book dealer and his wife of 67 years, died in 2012. Art has since published “My Florence: A 70-year Love Story” which honors her as his intellectual and loving partner.

Shay’s photographs reside in major permanent collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art – Chicago and the National Portrait Gallery (Washington D.C.). He is currently involved in several photographic and literary projects including an expansive book of his civil rights photographs and a documentary on his life and work.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Monroe Gallery of Photography was honored to welcome Tony Vaccaro to Santa Fe for the opening of the exhibition. Among the highlights of Tony's visit was his return to the location near Georgia O'Keeffe's home where he made his iconic photograph of Georgia holding " "Pelvic Series, Red with Yellow.

Courtesy of The Tony Vaccaro Studio

In conjunction with the exhibit, Monroe Gallery sponsored two sold-out free screenings of the Emmy Award nominated HBO documentary film “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro”. The film tells the story of how Tony survived the war, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches. The film also encompasses a wide range of contemporary issues regarding combat photography such as the ethical challenges of witnessing and recording conflict, the ways in which combat photography helps to define how wars are perceived by the public, and the sheer difficulty of staying alive while taking photos in a war zone. “Underfire: the Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro” was recently nominated for the 2017 Outstanding Historical Documentary Emmy.

Tony Vaccaro, now 94, was the keynote speaker at the recent 100th anniversary of the 83rd Infantry Division reunion in Cleveland, Ohio, August 2-6.

Opening October 6, the gallery is pleased to present a major exhibition of photographs from one of America’s most accomplished photographers, Art Shay. The exhibit of 50 photographs opens Friday, October 6 with a public reception from 5 – 7 PM, and continues through November 19.

For over 70 years, Art Shay has documented life, combining his gifts of storytelling, humor and empathy. The Lucie Awards is the premiere annual event honoring the greatest achievements in photography. Art Shay, now 95, will be honored with the Lucie statue for Lifetime Achievement during the Lucie Awards gala ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York October 29, 2017.

At the same time, renowned photographer Steve Schapiro will receive the Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism. Earlier this year the Gallery presented the exhibition "EYEWITNESS” to celebrate the completion of a project based on James Baldwin’s 1963 book, “The Fire Next Time”. Steve Schapiro’s photographs documenting the civil rights movement from 1963 – 1968 are paired with essays from “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin in a major book published by Taschen in March.

Monroe Gallery is now representing Ryan Vizzions, a respected photographer who occupies Atlanta’s underground art circles. In 2014, Vizzions was awarded a Readers Pick for Best Fine Art Photographer in Creative Loafing’s Best of Atlanta issue. Beginning in September 2016, Vizzions, 33, went to the front lines at Standing Rock, North Dakota, documenting the fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from scarring sovereign Native American land and tunneling underneath the Missouri River. Working as part of the media team for the Sioux Tribe’s Oceti Sakowin Camp, he photographed outside the mainstream media. One of his photograph, titled "Defend the Sacred," has appeared in publications including Newsweek and People magazine’s “Year in Pictures” spread, among others.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

“How can one respect, let alone adopt, the values of a people who do not, on any level whatever, live the way they say they do, or the way they say they should?”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

Monroe Gallery of Photography recently featured the exhibition “EYEWITNESS”, which celebrated photojournalist Steve Schapiro's completion of a project based on James Baldwin’s 1963 book, “The Fire Next Time”. Steve Schapiro’s photographs documenting the civil rights movement from 1963 – 1968 are paired with essays from “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin in a major book recently in a limited edition by Tashen. Signed copies of the book are available from the gallery.

Monroe Gallery will sponsor a special free encore screening of "Underfire" in Santa Fe on Saturday, August 26 at 3:45 pm at the Center For Contemporary Arts Cinematheque. Please call the CCA box office for tickets; seating is limited.

NOMINEES FOR THE 38th ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS ANNOUNCED
Charles Osgood to be honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

October 5th Award Presentation at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in NYC
New York, N.Y. – July 25, 2017 – Nominations for the 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards were announced today by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). The News & Documentary Emmy Awards will be presented on Thursday, October 5th, 2017, at a ceremony at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in the Time Warner Complex at Columbus Circle in New York City. The event will be attended by more than 1,000 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists. Awards will be presented in 49 categories.

“Many say we’re in a ‘golden age’ of television and I would argue that the incredible growth of quality, in-depth reporting in broadcast journalism and documentary filmmaking has helped drive that change,” said Bob Mauro, President, NATAS. “We live in a continually-connected world where a tweet can set off a firestorm that travels around the world in seconds. These awards are a tribute to the outstanding work being done by these nominees who provide the viewer with thorough, fact-checked reporting, examining the stories of the day from multiple perspectives while never wavering in their quest to provide us with the truth about world events. It is with great pleasure that The National Academy honors the achievements of these many organizations and individuals. It is an added delight to honor the one-of-a-kind broadcasting career of Charles Osgood, who through his decades as host of the ‘Osgood File’ and as the anchor of ‘CBS Sunday Morning,’ has graced many a news story with his innate ability to engage his audience with humor, warmth and credibility.”

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Best-known for Saigon
Execution, his Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph that forever shaped how the
world views the horrors of war, Eddie Adams was a renowned American
photojournalist who won more than five hundred awards. Eddie Adams: Bigger Than
The Frame presents a career-spanning selection of the photographer's finest
work from the 1950s through the early 2000s.In addition to his much-praised Vietnam War photography, the book
includes images that uncannily reflect world and domestic issues of today,
including immigration, conflict in the Middle East, and the refugee crisis. All
of them attest to Adams's overwhelming desire to tell people's stories. As he
once observed, "I actually become the person I am taking a picture of. If
you are starving, I am starving, too." Adams's widow, Alyssa Adams, will
be present and signing copies of the new book.

Richard Stolley (left), former Time magazine bureau chief, senior editor and managing editor, and Assistant Managing Editor and Managing Editor of Life magazine, led a Q & A with photographer Tony Vaccaro (right) following the screening of the film "Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro" at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

This Friday, a diverse collection of images in the exhibit Tony Vaccaro: From War To Beauty at the Monroe Gallery of Photography gives Santa Feans a glimpse into the life of the 94-year-old photographer from scenes of World War II to commercial fashion shots, and beyond.

This artist’s lens has captured some of the most famous humans ever—think Sophia Loren, Pablo Picasso and Marilyn Monroe. But some of his first forays into photography were spent documenting World War II. Drafted at 21 years old, Vaccaro carried a 35-mm camera through the trenches of Europe and used innovative techniques to develop his film: Patiently waiting for nightfall, the artist-soldier used the tools available to him in the middle of a war. “I would go over the ruins of a village and try to locate where a camera shop might have been,” he says. “So, in the ruins I could find developer and the things which you need.” Chemicals in hand, Vaccaro used helmets as developing trays; developer, water, hypo and more water to rinse; four helmets in succession in the pitch black. “From Normandy to Berlin, that’s how I developed my pictures,” he tells SFR.

Vaccaro had a long and illustrious career in photography after the war as well, including time working for magazines like Life, Harper’s Bazaar and Newsweek. His work took him to amazing places like the Nile River in Egypt and to photograph fabled architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

But which photo stands out to Vaccaro as his crowning achievement? Georgia O’Keeffe, he says. He asked the painter to take her work outdoors. “It’s one of the great photographs of my life, yes—I have it right in front of me—she’s in profile, and all you have is black, her face and then the great color of that painting,” he says. “The greatest [memory] was Georgia O’Keeffe, and coming to Santa Fe, and it was just Georgia and Tony for about a week or more. It was superb, really.” (Maria Egolf-Romero)

Sunday, June 4, 2017

WASHINGTON — The Newseum will look very different Monday as part of an annual campaign called “Without News.”

“It’s a day when we black out the front pages of the newspapers that we display here at the Newseum, and also on our Today’s Front Pages website,” the museum’s Sonya Gavankar told WTOP.

She said the idea is to reflect on what the world would be like without the people who bring us the news.

“It’s an important time for us to really talk about the crisis of journalists in peril, and also the attacks on freedom of the press, not only in this country, but also around the world,” says Gavankar.

Supporters are asked to use #WithoutNews on social media, and download a special profile picture from the Newseum website.
Also Monday, at 10 a.m., the Newseum will rededicate its Journalists Memorial, adding the names of 14 members of the media who died on the job in 2016.

The event will be held on the anniversary of the death of NPR photojournalist David Gilkey, who was killed by the Taliban while covering the war in Afghanistan.

Several items belonging to Gilkey will go on display at the museum, including a camera lens that was hit by a rubber bullet as Gilkey documented clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.

Friday, June 2, 2017

Kiss of Liberation: Sergeant Gene Costanzo kneels to kiss a little girl during spontaneous celebrations in the main square of the town of St. Briac, France, August 14, 1944

94-year Old
Tony Vaccaro travels to Santa Fe for screening of documentary and exhibit

Santa Fe, NM -- Monroe Gallery of
Photography is honored to announce a major exhibition of 50photographs by Tony Vaccaro.
The exhibit opens with a public reception for Tony Vaccaro on Friday, June 30
from 5 – 7 PM. The exhibit continues through September 17.

Monroe Gallery will sponsor a
free screening of HBO Films' “Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony
Vaccaro” at CCA on Saturday, July 1, starting at 3:45 pm. The screening will be
followed by a Q & A with Tony Vaccaro moderated by former senior editor and
reporter for LIFE magazine, Richard “Dick” Stolley. (Seating is limited, RSVP required to Monroe Gallery by June 28.)

The film tells the story of how Tony survived the war, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches. The film also encompasses a wide range of contemporary issues regarding combat photography such as the ethical challenges of witnessing and recording conflict, the ways in which combat photography helps to define how wars are perceived by the public, and the sheer difficulty of staying alive while taking photos in a war zone

Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania
on December 20, 1922, Tony Vaccaro spent the first years of his life in the
village of Bonefro, Italy after his family left America under threat from the
Mafia. Both of his parents had died by the time he was eight years old and he
was raised by an uncaring aunt. When World War II broke out, the American
Ambassador in Rome ordered Tony to return to the States. He settled in with his
sisters in New Rochelle, NY where he joined his high school camera club.

A year later, at the age of 21,
Tony was drafted into the war, and by the spring of 1944 he was photographing
war games in Wales. By June, now a combat infantryman in the 83rd Infantry
Division, he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach, six days after the first
landings at Normandy. Denied access to the Signal Corps, Tony was determined to
photograph the war, and had his portable 35mm Argus C-3 with him from the start. For the next 272 days,
Tony fought on the front lines of the war. He entered Germany in December 1944,
a private in the Intelligence Platoon, tasked with going behind enemy lines at
night.

After the war, Tony remained in
Germany to photograph the rebuilding of the country for Stars And Stripes
magazine. Returning to the US in 1950, Tony started his career as a commercial
photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Look,
Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Newsweek, and many more. Tony went on
to become one the most sought after photographers of his day, photographing
everyone from Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren to Pablo Picasso and Frank Lloyd
Wright. He visited Georgia O’Keefe in Abiquiu in 1960 on assignment for LOOK magazine.

Georgia O'Keeffe, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1960

Now 94, Tony still carries a
camera and puts in six or seven hours without a break; creating prints in his
darkroom and identifying jobs for his staff. Tony has won numerous honors and
awards,including the Art Director’s
Gold Medal (New York City, 1963), The World Press Photo Gold Medal (The Hague,
1969), The Legion of Honor (Paris, 1994), The Medal of Honor (Luxembourg,
2002), Das Verdienstkreuz (Berlin, 2004), and the Minerva d’Oro (Pescara,
2014).

Tony Vaccaro

Since retiring in 1982, Tony has
been exhibited over 250 times and has published or been the subject of ten
books and two major films. In 2014, the Tony Vaccaro Museum was inaugurated in Bonefro (Italy). Tony’s
photographs are in numerous private and public collections including The
Metropolitan Museum in New York, The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Library
of Congress in Washington.